Maria Hristova: Sofia Is Among the Fastest Recovering Cities During the Economic Crisis and Continues to Create New Jobs

Sofia Investment Agency was the official partner of the leading forum for skilled professionals Career Show 2020. On the second day of the event, CEO Maria Hristova joined the programme with a lecture on “Early career orientation and realization in innovative, modern, and progressive Sofia.”

“Sofia has been the champion on the labour market for the last five years – the capital is among the fastest recovering during the economic crisis and continues to create new employment even against the background of the slowdown in many parts of the country,” Maria Hristova said during her presentation. She added that part of the vision for the city is to create industrial business areas, as they lead to additional jobs and are valuable infrastructure in the long run.

More data about Sofia, shared with the participants in Career Show 2020

Over 43,000 students in Sofia are studying STEM disciplines (or the so-called “professions of the future”). Sixteen private academies offer IT training, courses are led by practitioners, and companies in the sector prepare the curriculum.

With the ambition to become a regional ICT center, Sofia is home to over 50,000 IT professionals. Every year the number of people employed in the ICT sector grows by 10-20%, and the average salary in the industry reached BGN 3,350 in March. There was a decline in the wage levels in the advent of the COVID-19 crisis. However, there has been a gradual recovery in remuneration for new candidates since the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2020.

Currently, the most active in demand are BPO and Shared Service center companies (including expert positions), manufacturing, and trading companies. The most preferred skills are those of programmers, followed by sales representatives and project managers. The district’s staff demand is most significant in Sofia, traditionally followed by other major cities – Plovdiv, Burgas, and Varna.

Despite the pandemic, more than 50% of companies invest in employees’ training and skills development, especially in the core that was detained during the pandemic.

It’s expected that technology companies’ business will continue to advance. According to the created or maintained product, most companies, with few exceptions, expect growth of their business within a year, and part of them have already achieved it. 

The pandemic has helped the contactless economy and boosted e-commerce. Other growing sectors are pharmacy, finance, service centers with people with foreign languages, and fast-moving consumer goods. Logistics also grew by 20%. So does any business that has benefited society during the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus.

We believe that we have been useful in presenting what a career, work experience, and personal development are, which are the professions of the future, and especially with the data on Sofia’s growing industries and what makes the city an attractive center for talents and employers.

Once again, we thank the Career Show 2020 organizers for the opportunity to get involved and talk about the development opportunities in innovative and progressive Sofia, our vision for the city, and how our team can help entrepreneurs who want to establish and develop their business in the capital. We also thank the companies Easy Consult and Adecco Bulgaria for their assistance in searching for and providing up-to-date data on the labour market.